The modern office environment is using increasing numbers of electronic equipment which are increasing the demands for both electrical and communication cabling. These demands, coupled with the extensive use of open-office systems employing portable space-divider panels, have greatly complicated the ability to provide power and communication cabling to desired locations without creating unsightly clusters of visible cables.
In an attempt to resolve this problem, there has been developed a work surface having a power block associated therewith, which surface is suitable for use on a table or wall panel, and is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 699 117 filed Feb. 7, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,756, which is Applicants' own prior development. The disclosure of this latter application is incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference.
In an attempt to continue to improve on such arrangements, the present invention has been developed and this again relates to a work surface arrangement suitable for mounting on a table or a wall. The work surface arrangement has a channel structure extending along the rear edge thereof, which channel is accessible through a plurality of sidewardly disposed doors. The doors are preferably hinged adjacent their forward edges to swing forwardly toward the user to provide access to the channel. The doors, when closed, define an elongated access opening along the free edges thereof for permitting cables to extend therethrough into the interior of the channel, whereby the cables can connect to equipment located on the work surface.
In an embodiment of the channel structure has a bottom wall provided with at least two longitudinally spaced openings in the preferred embodiment, which openings readily mount therein removable modular trays. These trays each are of a generally channel-like configuration which enables them to be removably positioned in the opening due to the trays having flanges which rest on the bottom wall of the channel arrangement, whereby the trays can be readily mounted on or removed and interchanged. The one tray is of a shallow channel-like cross section to provide extra space for storage of cables. The other tray, in a typical use environment, is of significant depth and mounts thereon a power block having several electrical receptacles and/or cabling ports associated therewith, the power block also typically having surge protectors, filters and/or overload devices associated therewith. Electrical power from an external source, such as a receptacle disposed adjacent the floor, can be fed by a cable which extends upwardly through the end of the tray for connection to the power block. Electrical equipment on the work surface can be readily plugged into the receptacles on the power block by opening the appropriate doors, with the doors thereafter being closed while permitting the cables to extend through the access opening which extends along the free edge of the doors. The modular tray employing the power block also has a further channel-like tray fixedly secured to and projecting downwardly therefrom, with this further channel-like tray being usable for storing excess cable therein.